One method of producing peat tubes is described in Canadian Pat. No. 939,905 issued on Jan. 15th, 1974 to the Research Council of Alberta, wherein a mass of peat, having the consistency of a puree, is compressed for the purpose of filling, through a nozzle, a thin plastic tube between 6 and 8 m in length. This tube, which may be between 2.5 and 3.3 cm in diameter, is then cut into lengths varying between 7.5 and 12.5 cm which are then arranged side-by-side in boxes. Once arranged vertically in the boxes, the cylinders, which are open at both ends, are treated as usual, i.e. they are hand-seeded, covered, and placed in greenhouses or in open ground, to promote germination and development of the seedlings. At the time of planting, the wall surrounding the cylinder should be removed and the seedling placed in the ground with the root-hairs left free.
Canadian Pat. No. 1,000,182, issued in November 1976 to Carlos Enrich, describes an apparatus and a method for producing seedlings. The apparatus described in this patent uses a tube made from a sheet of polyethylene and filled continuously, thus producing a continuous sausage. Although it is mentioned in this patent that the peat mixture is subsequently cut into small pieces, no teaching is provided as to the method of cutting and seeding the tube. It is to be assumed that cutting and seeding are separate manual operations carried out on a stationary tube.